Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

136 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 1:95
the conscripts hitting a GSPC mine and exploding. The Salafists then slit
the throats of the survivors and shot them. Other pictures of dead soldiers
were shown, some with skulls shot away and brains exposed, followed by
images of joyful “Islamists congratulating each other and offering prayers
of thanks.” The murder scenes are preceded by the injunctions on the
screen: “Fight them until the sentence of God is carried out on Earth” and
“You have to kill in the name of Allah until you are killed. . . . The whole
Islamic world should rise up to fight all the sick unbelievers. The flag of
jihad will be forever held high.” There is further commentary: “God loves
people who kill in his name. The enemies of Islam are scared. The Jews and
the Christians know that they have lost [the war] and want to stop us from
spreading the truth.” The Taliban film was equally gruesome, featuring
Taliban warriors torturing and decapitating Northern Alliance troops in
Afghanistan. Far from disturbing the mosque’s faithful, the films were
freely available at the mosque for £l0 each and, like the video of Daniel
Pearl’s beheading, were used as a recruiting device by Islamists. The Finsbury
Park Mosque offered its believers multiple opportunities vicariously
to enjoy unmitigated sadism and an imagined victory over imputed enemies,
all in the name of God.
On March 3, 2006, Mohammed Reza Taheri-Azar, an American citizen
of Iranian origin and a graduate student at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, N.C., deliberately drove a rented four-wheel-drive Jeep
Grand Cherokee into a crowd in a pedestrian commons at the university at
11:45 A.M., a time and place where students customarily gather for lunch.
He struck nine people. When asked later by reporters whether he intended
to kill, he answered, “Yes.” He repeated his affirmation at his trial on
August 12, 2006. 125 The police reported that he told them he had been planning
the assault for two years and had rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle
because he could “run things over and keep going.” 126 Fortunately, none of
the victims were seriously hurt. Taheri-Azar also told the judge at the preliminary
hearing, “I am thankful you’re here to give me this trial and to
learn more about the will of Allah.” 127 In his value system, he had done
125. Jessica Rocha, “Suspect says he meant to kill,” The News & Observer
(Chapel Hill, NC), March 7, 2006, http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/
415421.html (no longer available); see also Jesse James De Conto, “Taheri-Azar
admits he tried to kill,” The News & Observer, August 13, 2008, http://www.news
observer.com/news/crime_safety/story/84420.html?storylink=mirelated.
126. “Suspect rented SUV to Maximize Injuries in UNC Attack,” Security-
InfoWatch.com, http://www.securityinfowatch.com/suspect-rented-suv-maximizeinjuries-unc-attack;
see Daniel Pipes, “The Quiet-Spoken Muslims Who ‘Turn to
Terror,’” New York Sun, March 14, 2006, http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3450.
127. Rocha, ”Suspect says.“